A few weeks ago I undertook the very exciting task of heading out to Denver Colorado for what the photographic community considers to be one of the top photography workshops around.  The Rich Clarkson photography at the Summit workshops.  This was a really cool thing for me because it’s something I had always wanted to go to but never did.  That is until the call came in, and I was asked to go represent Elinchrom LTD, and the Mac Group at the 2019 Rich Clarkson Sports Denver workshop.  I can hardly remember saying yes to the terms of the job, but I know it was a fast response.  I actually got the call while I was in Grand Rapids at the event from my last post to give you a bit of a timeline.   Wowsa was this workshop everything it was advertised to be….

(Nikon Z7, 3200ISO, Nikon 300mmF4PF with TC20eIII to make 600mm.  1/2000th@F9)

That’s one of only a handful of frames that I made that week.  In fact, I only shot 25 at the football game, so ending up with this was as lucky as I would get.  As much as I wanted to shoot and do ALL THE THINGS that’s not why I was there.  I was there to be the lighting guy with Elinchrom, which meant demoing the lights for folks to use on location.  I was at the football game for portraits after the game, but that took a turn when the game got rained out, and we started shooting in the locker room.

The workshop was pretty spectacular.  As I mentioned earlier it was exactly as described.  This was the sports-specific workshop and instructors included the likes of Dave Black, Joey Terrill, Mark Terrill, Matt Hernandez, Jenn Pottheiser, John McDonough,  Deanne Fitzmaurice, Rod Mar,  Maxx Wolfson, Mark Reis, and Elsa Garrison.  You can read about all of them on the Workshop Info page.   Of course, Nikon, Roberts Camera, Profoto, Manfrotto were also there (While I was there for Elinchrom, Tenba, Benro and Kupo via the MacGroup).  World-class instruction and all the gear that the attendees can get their hands on the whole week included in the cost of admission.  You cannot beat this if you ask me, and I was there working instead of attending.

That’s a BTS shot of something that occupied most of my time. Motorcross.  Unfortunately, I don’t have any sample photos from this event but you can see Matt Hernandez’s final shot HERE and on my Instagram you can see the video of Matt’s shot being created.  The Elinchrom ELB1200s did the heavy lifting here doing what no other strobes can do with their High Sync heads.  Not sure the difference between High Sync and High Speed Sync?  You should check HERE.

Every day had an image critique, as well as a round table to ask questions to the instructors (pictured above).  If you are in the market to take your photography up to the next level, the Rich Clarkson Photography at the Summit Workshops are the place to do it, hands down.  I was mostly there to represent Elinchrom since I am very familiar with the system, which was super cool in my eyes as well.  I’ve shot Elinchrom for a long time, and it was an honor to be there in their name.  Everybody seemed to have a great time, and a lot of great friends were made that week.  I can only hope I have the honor of being associated with the workshops again in the future.  Either somehow working, or even as an attendee.  More Soon.